The Usual Suspect
“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” - Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey) from The Usual Suspects.
Wow how true that is. Not only that, but the other greatest tricks involve lies…but little ones we consider true. Sound good. Feel good. Accepted as good. But really they’re counterfeit…true-ish.
One of the biggest ones we tend to buy into hook, line and sinker is that if we believe that Jesus is truly the only way to God, somehow believing that absolute truth makes us arrogant or dangerous. But just believing or having knowledge of truth doesn’t make someone arrogant or dangerous, but rather it’s how it’s presented that shows others if we are loving or judgmental, merciful or hateful.
For those of us that are Christians, know this: we aren’t called to be the world’s moral police. It’s not our job to change people. That’s God’s job. It’s our job to be loving, accepting, merciful and full of grace - and that’s not mutually exclusive with believing absolute truth!
But the fact we follow Jesus should be great news for our co-workers, friends and neighbors. That doesn’t mean we have to be awkward, memorize some lame script and go door to door. Not at all. Love people. Invite them to EastLake where it’s safe to check things out.
But we can’t believe the lie that we should keep “our beliefs” to ourselves when we truly believe that someone can have an eternal relationship with God!
Atheist Penn Jillette (of the comedy duo Penn and Teller) says it best: